Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

The Rescue

Elmwood Springs, Missouri

February 19, 1976

It was early Thursday morning and Dena had been in Elmwood Springs almost a week. This was the first time Norma had let her come downstairs to eat breakfast. When she saw Dena she said, “Good morning—you look a hundred percent better. Come on in and sit down. I’ll get you some coffee but you have to promise me you’ll use a lot of cream.”

“Promise.”

Norma was happy. “I am so glad to finally see some color back in those cheeks. I will never forget how you looked when we came in that hospital room. I thought for a moment you might be dead.”

“I know.” Dena laughed. “I remember.”

“That was the only reason I screamed like that. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I said to Dr. DeBakey, she’s always been fair, she got that from her daddy—your daddy was fair—but she’s as white as a sheet, so don’t tell me she’s in good condition. What would you like, pancakes, waffles, or French toast? Or I can make all three if you want, you just tell me. I’m making Macky pancakes but you can have whatever your little heart desires. After all, this is your get-up-out-of-bed breakfast.”

“I’ll take pancakes too.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, that would be great. Where is Macky?”

“He’s out in the yard fly-fishing.”

“Do you have a lake or pond or something?”

“No, he’s just out there practicing, and I warn you, as soon as you even look like you might be feeling better he’s gonna start pestering you to go fishing with him. So he can show you his so-called skills. But you don’t have to go, just remember that. If you don’t feel like it, you just say so. First thing this morning he says, ‘Don’t you think a little bit of fishing might help Baby Girl start to feel better?’ And I said, ‘Macky, now don’t start jerking at her to go off down to that river and stand around in water all day.’ I said, ‘You just want an excuse to show her your fishing lures,’ so if he asks you if you want to see his collection, say no, thank you, unless you want to be bored to death for five hours. Uh-oh, here he is.”

Macky was coming in the back door happy to see her. “Well, hey, look who’s up.”

“I’ve never slept so much in my entire life.”

“Well, you needed it, Baby Girl,” Macky said. “You were just worn out. Maybe, if you’re up to it, Saturday we can take a run out to the river.”

“Macky, will you let her eat her pancakes. She does not want to go. Do you?”

Dena was caught. “Oh, I wouldn’t mind. It’s just that I don’t know anything about fishing.”

Macky’s face lit up. “It doesn’t matter. I can give you a few pointers. When you feel like it, come on down to the store and we can pick out a few things.”

“Macky—she does not want to spend five hours looking at fishing lures. Do you?”

They both looked at Dena.

“Well …”

“Of course she doesn’t, Macky.”

Macky said, “Norma, let the girl answer for herself.”

Dena said, “No, I don’t mind. That sounds interesting.”

“Come on down this afternoon if you feel like it.”

“She can’t come this afternoon.”

“Why not?”

“Because I promised Aunt Elner to bring her over for a visit.”

Norma looked at Dena. “You don’t mind, do you, Baby Girl?”

That afternoon Dena found herself on Aunt Elner’s porch. When Aunt Elner handed Dena and Norma their glasses of iced tea, Norma looked at the tea, an unusual shade of brown, dark at the top and lighter at the bottom. “What kind of tea is this?”

“It’s instant but it’s all I had. I used my last tea bag this morning. I’m sorry ’cause I don’t care what they say, instant is nowhere as good as the real thing.”

“Don’t worry about it, Aunt Elner,” Norma said. “This is just fine, really.”

“No telling what it’s gonna taste like. I’ve had that jar for a couple of years, or maybe five, but I don’t guess it will poison us.” She laughed. “And if it does, all three of us will go together. How are you doing, honey? Are you getting a chance to rest up?”

“Oh, yes.”

Norma took a sip of tea and tried not to make a face. She caught Dena’s eye when Aunt Elner wasn’t looking and gestured not to drink hers.

“Nobody’s been bothering you while you’re here, have they?”

Dena put her glass down. “No, they really haven’t.”

“And they better not, that’s all I can say, or they will have Mr. Macky Warren to answer to. But I tell you, Aunt Elner, you have never seen people act so silly in your entire life. Now I know why those poor movie stars live behind gates. If I’ve had one phone call I had a hundred, wanting Dena to do this or to do that … give a speech at some club, wanting to interview her for the paper or take her picture. If this is what you have to put up with every day, I don’t know how you stand it. No wonder you are tired; people pulling at me like that would give me the screaming meemies. Even Mary Grace called all the way from St. Louis, wanting her to come up to the phone company and give a talk.”

“You remember Mary Grace, don’t you, Baby Girl?” Aunt Elner said.

“No, I don’t think I ever met her.”

Aunt Elner seemed surprised. “Well, you should have, she’s your cousin.”

“No, honey,” Norma said. “Baby Girl’s not any kin to Mary Grace. Mary Grace is from Uncle Will’s side of the family.”

“Oh, that’s right. I guess there was no reason to meet her.”

Dena took the opportunity to ask a question. “Ah … are you my aunt, too? How are we related? I’m a little confused.”

Norma answered, “Your grandmother, Gerta Nordstrom, was Aunt Elner’s sister, so that makes her your great-aunt. Her other sister, Zela, was my mother, so that makes her my aunt … so you and I are second cousins on your father’s side.”

“What is Macky, then,” Aunt Elner wondered. “My nephew?”

“No, honey, he is not related to you by blood. He is your—I guess he’s your nephew by marriage. Here, this will make it easier for you, Baby Girl: your daddy, Gene, was my first cousin, so you must be my second cousin, and Macky is your second cousin by marriage. That’s right, isn’t it? Or maybe you’re my third cousin. Isn’t that right, Aunt Elner?”

“Oh, Lord, honey, I don’t know anymore.”

“Well, Gene’s mother was my Aunt Gerta so … Wait a minute. Aunt Elner, you must be my great-aunt.”

Aunt Elner said, “Who’s Mary Grace, then?”

“She is your niece on your husband’s side.”

“Oh, that’s right. I can’t even think about little Mary Grace without remembering that meal we had up in St. Louis. How old would little Mary Grace be now, Norma?”

“About sixty-seven.”

At this point Dena was wondering how fast she could get out of there and back to New York.

“That meal was something, wasn’t it, Norma?”

“Oh, yes. A fine Italian restaurant. Gitto’s.”

“I’ll never forget it. Tell Baby Girl what all we had.”

“I had the chopped sirloin and onions … mashed potatoes, spinach, creamed squash on the side. Mary Grace had fish with nuts sprinkled on top … trout almondine.”

“That’s right,” Aunt Elner agreed. “She had fish with the head still on it. And it was looking in my direction. I made her turn it around the other way. For those prices they could have taken the head off, but that’s how the Continentals do it.”

“Yes, and you ordered liver and onions.” Norma looked at Dena, who was still bewildered. “Here she had a chance to eat anything in the world and she orders liver and onions.”

“Well, I like liver and onions. How long are you going to be here, Baby Girl?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“I tell you what. Norma, you and Macky ought to take a trip up to St. Louis while she’s here and take her to Gitto’s for dinner. I wouldn’t mind going back up there, would you?”

“Honey, Baby Girl lives in New York City and I’m sure she has been to plenty of nice restaurants, she doesn’t need to go traipsing all the way up to St. Louis to eat a meal.”

“Verbena said she and Merle ate out at that new pancake house on the highway and said they got a good meal; maybe we could go there?”

“It’s up to Baby Girl; wherever she wants to go is fine with us.”

“Well, if you like pancakes, Verbena says this place is the last word.”

After they got back to Norma’s, Dena said casually, “You know, I think I really would like to see those fishing things. Is the hardware store hard to find?”

Norma laughed. “No, downtown is only a block, you can’t miss it. It’s right past the flower shop. Do you want me to drive you?”

“No, I’ll walk, thanks.”

The real reason she wanted to go downtown was not to look at fishing lures. She wanted to get to a phone. As soon as she turned the corner she went into the Rexall drugstore and called her agent in New York.

“Mr. Cooper, you have a collect call from Dena Nordstrom; will you accept?”

“Yes, put her on. Hello! How are you feeling? Are you getting some rest?”

“Get me out of here.”

“What?”

“I want you to get me out of here as soon as possible.”

“You don’t have to go back to work for a couple of weeks.”

“I don’t care, just get me out of here, now.”

When she hung up and came out of the booth, several people were waiting to say hello to her and to say how glad they were to see her home. In a moment she walked by a place that seemed vaguely familiar. At least it smelled familiar. It was the bakery they said her grandparents used to own, still called Nordstrom’s Swedish bakery even though there were new owners. She cupped her hands around her eyes and peered inside but nothing looked familiar. It was odd to walk down the street; people kept coming out of the stores and greeting her as if they were old friends. People she had never seen before in her life. Everybody knew who she was but when they spoke to her the older ones referred to her as Gene’s daughter, and the younger ones as Norma’s cousin or Aunt Elner’s niece. It was the first time in her life she had ever been referred to as anything but Dena Nordstrom.

People kept stopping her and telling her about how they had grown up with her father, or that he had once been their paper boy and what a fine fellow he was. It seemed everybody had a tale about her father or her grandparents they wanted her to hear. Finally, what seemed like hours later, she reached the hardware store.

Soon, Macky had shown her all his fishing flies, and explained each one by name and what fish it was used to catch. She said, “Macky, did you know my father?”

He nodded. “Very well. And your grandparents. Fine people.”

Today, she had been pleasantly surprised. Elmwood Springs was a really nice little town and all the people who had come up to her seemed very friendly. She suddenly began to wonder what it was that had caused her mother to move away. What had happened?

Even though everybody had wanted to tell her about her father or grandparents or talk about how they used to come into the bakery and see her sitting up on the counter when she was little, no one mentioned her mother. It was almost as if her mother had never been there.

After dinner Norma got out her father’s high school yearbooks and all his pictures in an album, but again there was not one picture of her mother.

The next morning at breakfast Dena said, “Norma, what did you know about my mother?”

Norma was caught off guard for a moment. Dena had never brought up the subject before. “Well, Baby Girl, not much. What would you like to know?”

“Oh, what she was like when she was here and things like that.”

Norma put a plate in the dishwasher and closed it and sat down across from Dena. “Well, I can only tell you what I know. I was in high school, I guess … or maybe I had graduated by then. But I certainly remember her. But you know, she wasn’t here all that long, and she stayed mostly to herself. I do remember we would go up to Aunt Gerta’s house to see you and she was always so proud of you, bought you all kinds of toys.”

“Did you like her?”

“Oh, yes, very much. But don’t forget I was still young and didn’t get to know her all that well.”

“What about Aunt Elner?”

“Well, Aunt Elner could probably tell you more than I could. We could talk to her if you’d like.”

“Yes, I think I would.”

Right after breakfast they were on Aunt Elner’s porch again.

“Aunt Elner, I wonder if you remember anything about my mother.”

Norma said, “I’ve told Baby Girl everything I remember.”

“Well, honey, let me sit here and tax my memory.… Lord, that was a piece ago, wasn’t it. But of course I do. I remember the first day she came here. You were just a tiny baby; we went down to the train station to meet Gene’s wife. He had written of how pretty she was, but we had no idea she was going to be that pretty. We were all standing there and here this glamorous creature steps down from the train. We almost couldn’t believe our eyes. She looked like she had stepped out of a magazine. She had on this aqua wool dress and her hair was swept up on her head and she had this little smart pancake of a hat tilted over one eye. Oh, she was a fashion plate if I ever saw one. Let’s put it this way: we had never seen anything like her in Elmwood Springs. Beautiful red hair, and that creamy white skin, and those green eyes—you got Gene’s eyes but you got your mother’s figure. She was tall and I remember her posture, she held herself just like a queen.” She chuckled. “To tell you the truth, I was embarrassed; here we were, her new family, and me so big and fat, wearing a homemade housedress and my old black tie-up shoes, I just wanted to hide. But she recognized us and we were all anxious to get a look at you; you were Gene’s baby, you sort of broke the ice. And when we saw you we were all tickled to death. You couldn’t miss you were Gene’s baby, all right, with that towhead of white hair and those big blue eyes. She had you dressed in the cutest baby outfit, a little pink dress with lace, and she had a big pink bow tied around your head. You looked like one of those baby dolls that Norma had gotten for Christmas, didn’t she, Norma?”

“You did, you were the cutest thing.”

Dena said, “How did she seem?”

“If anything, she was shy, she wouldn’t let anyone take her picture. I said as pretty as you were, you needed to have your picture made—but she wouldn’t.”

“Did she seem unfriendly?”

“Oh, no, she was very sweet and soft-spoken … but sort of reserved, wouldn’t you say, Norma?”

“Yes, I guess you could say that. Not that she wasn’t perfectly friendly, mind you.”

Aunt Elner agreed. “No, she was perfectly friendly and pleasant but you could tell right away that she was not one of those flighty young girls that some of the boys brought home. Not only was your mother pretty, she was refined and well spoken, and she wrote with a beautiful hand. Well educated and from a good family but she never talked about them and we never asked. We didn’t want to open a sore spot, we thought if she wanted to talk about it she would, and after losing her entire family in a fire, then to lose Gene … I don’t know how she lived through it. Do you, Norma?”

“No, I kept thinking that she would talk about it but she never did the whole time she was here.”

“It must have been terrible for her, a young girl like that all alone in the world, her whole family gone. I don’t know how she stood it but you could tell it had affected her, she always seemed a little sad or something. Even though she never talked about it, you could tell she never got over it.”

“I read in the Reader’s Digest that a person that survives a tragedy goes through all kinds of guilt for being the one left alive,” Norma said. “She should have gone for some help. But back then, they didn’t have any, not like they do today. She did seem nervous, though, didn’t she, Aunt Elner?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say nervous but she always seemed a little uneasy, looking over her shoulder like something was worrying her—sort of holding her back from really letting go and having fun. You were her only joy, you were the only thing I ever saw her eyes light up over. She never showed her emotions much. She didn’t cry or at least none of us ever saw her. She got a job and just went to work every day and came home and played with you at night. Otherwise, she never went out, never saw anybody. And then one day, when you were about four, she just up and left. Packed your things, took you out of nursery school, and left. She said she wanted to get a better job and she couldn’t get one in Elmwood Springs, so she just took off and she never came back. It broke your poor grandparents’ hearts.”

“Did you ever meet anybody she knew?” Dena asked. “Did anybody at all ever come to see her?”

Aunt Elner thought. “No … nobody ever did. She never had anybody come and see her, nobody except that Italian man that time.”

Norma looked at Aunt Elner. “Italian? You never told me about any Italian man.”

“Well, I forgot. I think he was an Italian or Greek or something, some kind of foreigner. I only saw him through a screen door but he had kind of slicky hair. He walked up on the porch and knocked on the door and asked if your mother lived there and Gerta went to get her and I can tell whoever he was she didn’t like him much, she didn’t even invite him in. Your mother had impeccable manners and that was not like her, but the minute she saw him, she took him way out on the sidewalk and away from the house. I was just sitting there in the living room and I couldn’t help but look. I could see right out the screen door. Whoever he was, your mother was not happy he showed up, I can tell you that. It looked like she was mad at him. And whatever she said must have run him off because after about ten minutes he was gone. When she came back in the house you could tell that she was still upset, her face was all flushed.”

Norma was amazed. “And she never said who he was?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t ask?”

“No, Norma, I don’t poke in other people’s affairs. Just pass and repass, I always say. She didn’t volunteer and we didn’t ask.”

“Are you sure she didn’t say anything? I can’t believe she didn’t say anything.”

“Norma, that was some thirty years ago.”

“Well, try and remember back.”

“She might have said something … let me search my memory. I think she might have said, ‘I’m sorry’ … yes, that’s right, she did. Like I said, your mother had beautiful manners. I think he may have been some old boyfriend who found out that her husband had been killed and showed up trying to get her to go out with him.”

“Did he ever come back?” Dena asked.

“No, not to my knowledge. But your mother left town shortly after that so I haven’t any idea if he ever bothered her again or not. But you know, you can’t blame the poor fellow, she was a pretty thing.”

Norma said, “Couldn’t you hear any thing? Did you hear what they were arguing about?”

“Oh, I could hear them, all right, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They were talking in a foreign language.”

“Both of them?”

“Well, sure, honey, you can’t have one person talking one language and the other one talking something else.”

“What language were they speaking?”

Aunt Elner said, “Well, now, that was the funny thing. Like I said, he looked Italian. But they were talking in German.”

Norma was not convinced. “Aunt Elner, now, think back: Are you sure it was German? Don’t you think it might have been Italian or maybe Spanish?”

Aunt Elner said, “No. Don’t forget your Uncle Will’s father was a Shimfessle. All he spoke was German, so I know German when I hear it. It was German, all right, that much I’m sure of.”

“Baby Girl knew her mother spoke German, didn’t you, honey?”

Dena said, “Oh, yes … I knew that.” Suddenly Dena began to feel anxious, and she didn’t know why she lied. She had no idea her mother had spoke German. She quickly changed the subject and did not bring it up again. The next morning a telegram arrived for her.

AM SORRY TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR BELOVED AGENT AND SHOW BUSINESS ICON, SANDY COOPER, PASSED AWAY SUDDENLY LAST EVENING. PLEASE RETURN TO NEW YORK AT ONCE.

JULIAN AMSLEY, NETWORK PRESIDENT

Later that night when she got off the plane at La Guardia, Sandy said, “Well, how do I look for a dead man?”

Dena said, “Beautiful!” and kissed him, thrilled to be back.

One of the first things she did when she got back to her apartment was to sit down and type a letter.

Dear Gerry,

Thank you so much for your flowers. I know you went to a lot of trouble to bring them to me and I really do appreciate it. However, I think it would be unfair of me to keep you from pursuing a relationship with the kind of woman you deserve to be with. You are too nice a guy to lead on.

I hope we can be friends in the future and I wish you all the best in everything you do.

Sincerely,

Dena Nordstrom